+1 to the arguments that many people on this thread have already been making
(while I was away) for avoiding the redefinition of meta content-language in
HTML5. I'd just like to add a couple of points.
First, if we're looking for a way of using the meta element rather than
disallowing it, why not simply propose that it be treated as equivalent to
an HTTP header declaration, and clearly specify that browsers can use the
initial item in any sequence of values for the meta content-language as a
fallback for the default text-processing language where there is no language
attribute. I believe that this was the original intent, and I suspect that
this would be consistent with its use in current pages, while still
preserving the possibility to use the meta element principally as metadata.
( Of course, one would then need to define the relationship between any HTTP
header and the meta tag when both are applied to a page.)
Second, I don't think we should base our rationale for features solely on
past or current practice. Eg, even though there are few applications
processing in-document language metadata at the moment, it seems feasible to
me that there may be in the future, and that we shouldn't close the door on
that possibility by changing the meta element to be yet another way of just
setting the text-processing language - especially since we currently have a
way of allowing for both attributes and meta data to co-exist.
RI
============
Richard Ishida
Internationalization Lead
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
http://www.w3.org/International/http://rishida.net/